Two companies fined after driver killed by his own lorry

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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Text copied from Derby Telegraph website.

thisisderbyshire.co.uk/compa … z2RDj4I3TQ

TWO companies have today been ordered to pay a total of £794,658 in fines and costs after a driver was run over and killed by his own lorry.

Father-of-three Gary Walters, 51, was collecting a trailer loaded with concrete products from Bison Manufacturing Ltd in William Nadine Way, Swadlincote, when the fatal incident occurred on October 11, 2010.

Mr Walters, who was working for Larkins Logistics Ltd at the time, failed to apply the brake in his cab and, because Bison’s drivers had not applied the brake to the trailer, the vehicle moved off as he was coupling the two parts together.

Mr Walters, of The Street, Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, is believed to have gone round the front of the vehicle, possibly in an attempt to get into the cab and apply the brakes, but he was struck by the cab and run over. He died of multiple injuries.

Following a trial earlier this month at Derby Crown Court, Larkins Logistics Ltd, of Dobbs Hill Farm, Staunton, Gloucester, was found guilty of breaching two sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was today fined £450,000 and ordered to pay court costs of £23,317.

Bison Manufacturing Ltd, of Anchor Boulevard, Admirals Park, Dartford, Kent, admitted the same charges and was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £21,341.

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Tragic but I never understand why drivers try to get back in
Pull the red line back off

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Tragic, but surely at the end of the day the driver didn’t check that the trailer brake was applied before coupling and then didn’t apply the handbrake. A tragic combination unfortunately.
RIP Drive.

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Once when i was at IMR i coupled upto a trailer in the yard and i had forgotten to put the handbrake on!!! :open_mouth: I was really lucky cos it only rolled back about 5ft to a kerb BUT!!! In that short space of time i PANICKED, I didn’t know what to do, jump down, try and get into the cab, like i said the kerb saved me :smiley: Untill we are in said situation we dont know how we’ll react :unamused: Thank god i got away with it, as at IMR you did alot of trailer changes :smiley:

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The handbrake beeper is on of the few things I don’t mind being told off by truck for. I always wait a few seconds when I put the red line on so I can just pull it back off if the truck starts moving, same with the trailer park brake.

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ditto tango boy,i would think most of us have been there.

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I have no idea why the companies have to pay costs here :confused:

A driver doesn’t put his handbrake on and that is the companies fault■■? I dont get it.

Also condolences to the family etc, but am just not seeing whats going on here.

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Thats why Toscos fit an automatic park brake.

Most of their drivers cant chew gum and ■■■■ at the same time.

A tradgedy but cant see how why anybody else should take the wrap for the drivers mistake.

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merc0447:
I have no idea why the companies have to pay costs here :confused:

A driver doesn’t put his handbrake on and that is the companies fault■■? I dont get it.

Also condolences to the family etc, but am just not seeing whats going on here.

+1 Rip

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This is very bad news for all of us.
I see a plethora of new H&S initiatives and training being introduced :unamused:
100% perfection does not exist, so why do they think it does?

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One more question to be asked,Who got the 425 grand?

bet it didnt go to the poor buggers family.

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This surely is an abuse of the H&S system, where a court can ‘fine’ such huge amounts.
So what benefit will there be,and to whom, by fining those two companies?

This level of financial penalty [and that’s all it is] could likely put companies out of business,
and huge job losses with it.
This money finds its way back to the Gov somehow or other…smells of
rampant Whitehall corruption here.

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merc0447:
I have no idea why the companies have to pay costs here :confused:

A driver doesn’t put his handbrake on and that is the companies fault■■? I dont get it.

Also condolences to the family etc, but am just not seeing whats going on here.

it will be companies getting fined for their drivers killing them selves from rear ending the truck in front next, because they were to slow to apply the foot brake!!

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Reading further on this, I think a large part of the reason why fines were imposed on Bison specifically, is that failure to employ the trailer parking break was endemic, there had been previous similar incidents that were not acted on, and therefore (in the court’s opinion) the death was preventable.

From: constructionenquirer.com/201 … ast-plant/

–
"An HSE investigation found that drivers working for Bison did not routinely apply the trailer brakes to ensure the units were safely parked.
Following the tragedy, a police vehicle examiner examined ten other trailers at the site but none had the brakes applied, and no other manual system of restraint, such as chocks or hooks, was in place.
Derby Crown Court heard that there had been a number of other instances of lorries rolling away and Larkins’ drivers had not been properly trained to assess the use of trailer brakes in the yard.
Both companies had identified the risk to workers, but had failed to implement appropriate control measures."

…

"After the hearing HSE inspector Judith McNulty-Green said: “This was not an isolated incident — sadly there are deaths and serious injuries to drivers every year in similar circumstances. It happened out of poor practice and was entirely preventable.
“Bison Manufacturing Ltd failed to implement a safe system of work for the storage of trailers with the brakes applied.
“They and Larkins Logistics Ltd also failed to implement and monitor working procedures for coupling and uncoupling trailers in the yard, and they failed to do it despite previous incidents."

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Cold Up North:
Tragic, but surely at the end of the day the driver didn’t check that the trailer brake was applied before coupling and then didn’t apply the handbrake. A tragic combination unfortunately.
RIP Drive.

Correct first check i do is handbrake and park brake trailer

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well I have just downloaded and printed off copies of the hse coupling and uncoupling procedure of trailers from the internet and will be giving them to my drivers tomorrow and displaying a copy in the office, other than that I cant do much more

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markwill:
well I have just downloaded and printed off copies of the hse coupling and uncoupling procedure of trailers from the internet and will be giving them to my drivers tomorrow and displaying a copy in the office, other than that I cant do much more

Get them to sign to say they have been issued it, and have read it and understood it’s content.

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Sorry for the driver and rip etc but to not put the unit brake on the trailer brake is immaterial :unamused: Ok someone has lost their life but it is unfortunately driver error. Unless I have misread the original post!

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I don’t get it either, the guy makes a tragic mistake and they fine his firm 450k?

Can sort of understand the bison fine as their shunters should have been applying parking brakes and put signs in the yard saying to put it on, blah, blah.

Sheer panic made him try and get back in the cab rather than pull the red line, easy to be judgy unless its happened to you.

One of my drivers did this a few years back and just managed to get back in the cab and apply the brake before it rolled through in to the side of a prologis warehouse. He very nearly went under the wheels as well.

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Appropriate control measures? We are human not robots, bleepers and warning this, that and the other can only be relied upon so far.